So, has anyone looked at the schedule of HP Pavilion? It's booked solid in February with tennis from the 11th-17th, a Pink concert on the 18th and then figure skating from the 20th through the 24th.

That's going to be a hellacious road trip.

Maybe they could do a 3-game Canada road trip during ATP (or an east coast road trip like Chicago, Columbus, and Detroit), come back for a game on the 19th, and then do a 2-game road-trip during the figure skating (maybe Anaheim and LA or something). It'd be better than some extremely long one.

IIRC don't they usually have an absurdly long road trip around then anyway? It would be a tough trip but that likely means a lengthy stretch of games at home at some point.

Those road trips are usually against the eastern conference though aren't they? Only Western Conference games this season.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjshrky27

So, this may be a stupid question... Can the NHL just extend the season???

What keeps them to the start/end dates of the season. The SC is in May/June usually, why cannot they just go into July???

Fear for the loss of fans due to summer conflicts. Plus it'll mess up the next season. They'd either have to move the start of the 13-14 season to November, or give each player a shorter off-season. Both of those options aren't great.

Right, but it's 40 or 50 games into the season, not 10. If the Sharks get off to a .500 start and then go on a 8 game in 14 night road trip, that could kill em

Yeah, at least this is the last year of the tennis. But I don't have much hope the Sharks won't take a full house over a better schedule anyway. Look what they did this year booking so many event near the tennis tourney. Really pisses me off. The Sharks have enough of a hurdle due to travel for SVSE to **** it up even further.

Ever since yesterday I was thinking the Sharks will open on the road at Staples Center in a Rivalry game watching the Kings raise the banner. Hey, if they want key rivalries, you can't get any bigger on the west coast at least with Northern and Southern California.

That would be nice, but our luck they would go Ducks at Kings and then Sharks at Yotes or Stars

Very true, but there is no confirmation that the Winnipeg/CBJ swap is going to happen, so they could still go to CBus during the tennis trip.

That would probably work out better. Could have a 3 game road-trip against Columbus, Detroit, and Chicago. Or the schedule makers could be cruel and give the Sharks a 6/7 game road-trip instead of a 3/4 and 2.

That would probably work out better. Could have a 3 game road-trip against Columbus, Detroit, and Chicago. Or the schedule makers could be cruel and give the Sharks a 6/7 game road-trip instead of a 3/4 and 2.

You can include Nashville in that mix too, since they are also out there too from a geographic perspective.

Here are the main parameters of the rule: a club cannot absorb more than 50 percent of the players’ annual cap hit/salary in any trade. Any NHL club can only have up to three contracts on their payroll where the contract was traded away under the retaining salary proviso. Also, only up to 15 percent of your upper limit cap amount can be used up by the money you have retained in trades.

For example, let’s say the Maple Leafs want to trade little-used blueliner Mike Komisarek and his $4.5-million cap hit ($3.5 million salary this year) to the New York Islanders (hypothetically). The Leafs could retain half the cap hit -- $2.25 million -- and half the salary -- $1.75 million -- in order to facilitate the deal. The Islanders would pay him the other half. This should facilitate more trades around the league, no question.

Maybe I imagined it but didn't they put in a provision that allows teams to keep salary of a traded player? Helping the new team fit a new player under the cap? I could have sworn I saw that in an article but now I can't find it...

EDIT: NEVERMIND... hadn't read all this at the end... DIsregard my question...

With the shortened schedule and teams only playing in conference games make me think some of the Eastern teams will have it made. The minimal travel that they enjoy makes them heavy favorites to win it all...

With the shortened schedule and teams only playing in conference games make me think some of the Eastern teams will have it made. The minimal travel that they enjoy makes them heavy favorites to win it all...

I don't think so. Tell that to the Kings... This is probably the least disparity the east and west will have in travel schedule. In a normal year is comically disproportionate...

@PollakOnSharks rt @TGfireandice Bill Daly on NHL announcing schedule: "Not tomorrow. Sometime at the end of the week or over the weekend."

IMHO, that's kinda ridiculous if you operate under the assumption that they already have a 48 schedule drafted (which a lot of people, including people here, believe). As everyone says, looks like 48 games and looks like it will start Sat, Jan. 19. Is it really so difficult to release a tentative schedule so fans can start making plans on tickets (and which games they are going to and all that)?

I know that nothing is official until tomorrow with the NHL and the PA on Thurs/Fri, but Bill Daly is essentially saying they won't put out the schedule until Fri or Sat. There is no reason they cannot just announce a tentative schedule now (if they really do have one in their back pocket) and say it is tentative and still subject to approval of the CBA by NHL and NHLPA. It's not rocket science.

Saw a tweet from a Stars insider saying they'll open at home. Still have fingers crossed that means something like Yotes at Stars and not Sharks. Although it would be cool to attend a road home opener, actually it's not because I don't want to sit through their pre-game BS and I really don't want hear the rude Stars fans yell during the National Anthem...twice...

Come on NHL scheduler, show some ingenuity and don't just keep Sharks at Stars Jan. 19 from the old schedule and give us Sharks at Kings Jan. 19. Raising the banner when we're there would definitely make me forget about the lockout.

On a related note, RDS is confirming Habs and Leafs for Jan. 19. This whole not releasing the schedule now is getting ridiculous. At the very least, announce and start hyping up the January 19 opening night schedule (now credible sources like TSN and co are saying it's 99% certain to open Jan 19). If RDS can announce Leafs at Habs, it's "official" enough.